Trip Reports

Tongariro Crossing   —   27th April 2002

Leader: Slippered up in a comfy chair somewhere.
Writer: Robyn.

What can I say! Standards have slipped - the leader and many long serving and respected members of the Club either stayed at the Backpackers, or came home, instead of undertaking a bracing and brisk crossing of Mt Tongariro!

Ralph, Denise, Paul, Karen, Rose, Brock, Graham, Jackie and myself maintained the pride of the Club by donning our rainjackets and other assorted storm gear and setting off on the Tongariro Crossing in less than ideal conditions.

It was touch and go actually just getting to the start line - the bus driver displayed a preference for rally driving rather than bus driving as he tried to overtake all and sundry on the final road leg, which was ah narrow. Those other cars or buses that didn’t take the hint by hurrying up got us right up their a$@*%. At the finish line, the driver dished out some pamphlets and relayed the pickup time as 5pm then mentioned that those who made it out by 3.45pm could get a lift to a café for a latte for a subsequent pickup by another bus.

The walk started out okay, although there was a bit of mist and drizzle. The earlier pickup and latte temptation was enough to set a cracking pace from the word go for some and the group quickly spread out. There were stacks and stacks of people on the track though - even for such a miserable day so everyone was pretty safe going at their own pace. Before the first climb, the sensible people (me, Ralph and Jackie) had a short break while the others went for it. I met up with most of the others waiting at the first plateau area just as the rain began to set in so everyone set off again. Heavy mist and light rain then accompanied us on the cold high bits so not much stopping to admire views took place.

I was the second person to the Ketetahi Hut (Brock had already been and gone), and a regroup of sorts took place as some people sat around in the shelter eating and talking and some of us took our boots off and went in beside the gas heater for a while.

The rain has reduced the tendency to dawdle so we had heaps of time up our sleeves even for the latte bus. And the weather cleared! So we had a leisurely stroll down the hill observing the change in flora and fauna and taking in the views. I was in a subgroup with Jackie the Botanist and Graham the Orchidist so I got to ‘observe’ much more than usual. We were really chuffed to meet a robin on the track, which didn’t fly off. In fact, we were able to get within 20 or 30 centimetres of it. We noticed this again on the track how the birds hung about really close to the track - like they had become acclimatised to people.

At the road end there were heaps of people - a couple of buses were due. Pretty soon we saw a bus approaching and wondered if it would be ours. I looked at the time and the speed of the approaching bus. It was going fast and it was about 5 minutes early. “That’s our rally driver” I said. Everyone understood and rose up onto their feet. The door opened and we were all in and out of there within another five minutes. No mucking around. Naturally we came upon a ‘slow’ vehicle within a short space of time. This time he got on the horn and the car pulled over pronto. We continued on.

We piled out for a very fast latte and then onto another bus and back to the Backpackers. We told our tales of great adventure to Bruce, Maureen, Cathy, and Dennis, were appropriately patted on the back, then zoomed off to the hot pools in triumph, knowing We Did It. And The Others Piked!